Felice Casorati’s L’idiota: Subverting Eugenic Ideals in Fascist Italy
Keith, Ella-Rose
Keith, Ella-Rose
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Abstract
Felice Casorati’s L’idiota (1932) offers a visual subversion of Fascist biopolitics, gender ideology, and eugenic discourse in the ventennio. Situating Casorati within the intellectual milieu of 1920s Turin reveals his anti-fascism that is conveyed in the work in question. Through visual analysis, archival research and contextual study of Fascist cultural policy, Casorati’s monumental nude is presented as an image of both idealised fertility and pathological exclusion. By aligning the iconography of L’idiota with early twentieth century eugenic rhetoric and pro-natalist propaganda, the work critiques the contradictions within Mussolini’s regenerative project, which sought both quantitative and qualitative improvement of the Italian race. Engagement with the literary influence of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot (1869) provides a moral framework for Casorati, in which the subversive potential of innocence is utilised in challenge to the Fascist regime’s eugenic programme.
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Master of Arts in Art History -- John Cabot University, Fall 2025.
Date
2025
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Felice Casorati, 1883-1963
Citation
Keith, Ella-Rose. "Felice Casorati’s L’idiota: Subverting Eugenic Ideals in Fascist Italy". Master's Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2025.